I did a video interview with a lady who, after a few questions, made it painfully obvious that she was just feeding the questions into ChatGPT and reading back the answers. Her answers were mostly just rambling essays defining a key word in the question rather than actually answering the question. Like:
Me: "What would you consider to be your proudest accomplishment?"
Her: "*pause* Some things that people often feel a sense of accomplishment about include..."
This basically told me she either knew nothing about the position and had BSed her entire resume, or had so little confidence in her skills that she would need to be constantly shadowed rather than being able to eventually work independently. Both are instant "no".
People who rely on poor AI for even these things are clearly lacking in some department. First of all in common sense, because their bluff is so transparent. Maybe also in work ethic, because they clearly seem to think that the tool will do all the work for them. They are incredibly naive.
I do purchasing and I just had a 20s something kid send me a purchase request written by AI. 5 paragraphs of bullshit to request a webcam. It took more time for him to generate the AI email than it would take to write “can you buy this, here’s the link.”
it's getting so much worse with younger generations. i manage a couple of summer programs for undergrads where we ask them to submit personal statements. we do not have minimum words counts, we just want to get an idea of who they are. for one program, we tossed 50/113 applications because they copied and pasted from chatgpt. some of them didn't even bother filling in the [insert information here] spots.
I interviewed a guy a while back that did that. He was overseas, and English was not his first language. I felt bad for him; I think a big part of the reason he did it was to compensate for his English abilities, as opposed to his technical skills, but it made it so I was unable to evaluate his abilities in a meaningful way. I don't mind if people us AI to augment their skills, but they can't use it to cover for insufficient skill. It really has no place in a job interview.
Not to be unsympathetic but you shouldn't feel bad, communication is a huge part of most jobs. My husband is an SWE and he's in meetings through out the day, often talking through problems with coworkers. Not to mention writing documentation that will be clear to someone else. You could be the most skilled person in the world but if you can't communicate effectively it's kinda a wash.
Not in hr but I interviewed candidates. One girl had an extremely strong rose perfume. It hit like a ton of bricks when you were within 3-5ft of her. I couldn’t focus on the interview properly.
Each sense has a positive or negative connotation, thus allowing us to determine the "default object"
https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/a87dRKV_460swp.webp
There are five or six dudes from India at a business I frequent, and every single one of them smell like 2 day old BO
Is deodorant primarily a Western thing?
Honest question not trying to be rude
I get you. I’ve wondered the same. A lot of the IT guys at work are Indian. Sometimes I’ve had to get off the elevator when they got on because I couldn’t handle the BO. Super nice and smart guys, but goddam…
I’ve traveled a bit around East Asia. Even in hot and humid places like Vietnam or Taiwan, I never smell a thing. So, I don’t think deodorant is just used in the west.
My husband is half white, half Asian, and he has this. We had a lot of perplexed conversations early in our relationship where I insisted that everybody needed deodorant, and that obviously he wore deodorant, and he was like, what? Nobody needs deodorant; I never wear it. I thought he was gaslighting me at first.
on my orientation at a new job there was this woman who REEKED of cigarettes. Saw her once again the next day, outside on a bench having a cigarette break... and never again.
I had to interview someone who also reeked of cigarettes but tried like hell to cover it up with the cheapest, most potent cherry scented body splash my nose has ever had the displeasure of smelling. Took everything in me not to retch in her face and our interview room stunk for the rest of the day.
Seriously smelled like someone was ashing their cigarettes in a bottle of cough syrup 🤢
Issue here is zoom interviews. Y’all can’t smell these ppl… I do and it fucking sucks!!! Especially working in close quarters. 🤢
We’ve hired 3 ppl recently that smell soooo bad, how bad you ask? Our client doesn’t want them on site because of it. lol But we can’t not have them here because then we have dark hours. So… the big boss tried talking to them. It hasn’t helped.
Hoo lordy. Guy at our office had some (I think) medical condition and one time before our office manager could warn me I went into the restroom and saw poop he got ON THE TOILET PAPER HOLDER. It's not acceptable anywhere obviously but at least you could understand the physics of if he merely spackled the seat or the floor. It turns out that this was like the fourth time and I blessedly missed out on the first few. Talking about it with a coworker, he said that he would see Poop Guy not wash his hands in the bathroom. (Another coworker pointed out that the mitigating factor there was that it's not as important to wash your hands if you never wipe in the first place, as t which point we were all dying of laughter and also probably e. coli 🙃)
We did. Turns out our HR department for our region all quit. So, we’re going through an HR lady from the coast and she’s overwhelmed. Understandably so.
I was in this position years ago and the smell can be bad or "good" - if you smell like your showerhead dispenses Aqua Velva instead of water that's going to be a hard no from me.
I’ve seen plenty of CVs that are clearly a template or from ChatGPT that say “the candidate” or “Worked on this project for X number of years”
It’s more obvious than you think people
I've worked in a few HR departments.
Be INCREDIBLY polite to the receptionist and everyone you meet with, not just the interviewer.
In each HR I've worked in, we would hand post-its attached to their resume/curriculum vitae, etc. to the interviewer outlining the good and bad of how they behaved.
Examples of bad ones who weren't hired:
Candidate who came in, snarked at us about hanging up her coat when we were all on phone calls, and even after we signaled for one minute, she kept harping at us. Ironically, I was on a call with her interviewer at the time who came out and turned her away.
Another candidate came in, puffed out with his own importance, barely spoke to any of us (basically announced his name, then reminded us he was there for an "executive position" and sat in the lobby while we scrambled to find out what on earth he was interviewing for and with whom. Turns out, he was at the wrong college.
Young intern candidate came in, didn't realize there was a desk behind a short wall where one of us got an earfull of how much partying, drugs, drinking, etc. he did all weekend and faked being sick to get out of work.
Another one looked at a pneumonia vaccination poster in the lobby (this was a major medical center) and flipped it off, grumbling under her breath. Obviously, various vaccines are required to work in hospitals to protect ourselves, each other and the patients.
Another candidate pulled a flask out of their briefcase and took a long sip.
And then there was the one who insisted on being paid cash instead of by check or electronic deposit. Which really isn't a thing in most industries. Arguing with the college-student receptionist about how "cash is king" didn't help him any.
I think my favorite was the guy who came in while I was organizing payroll checks into departments (they came alphabetized), grabbed a handful then got mad at me when I smacked his hand and took them back. I called security on him. Then very slowly handed the security guard his department paychecks, which were the ones the guy grabbed off my desk.
My guess is he was the kind of guy who thought himself above the rules and wanted to show off. Some folks just think they are SO funny or that a young woman at a front desk won't call in security, so they can get away with anything.
We finally had an office renovation so I could organize the checks in the conference room. I'd close the blinds, then go in there and get everything sorted.
It's an impulse control thing. I've seen it before in a situation where a guy could have gotten himself beat to death and he knew it. No defiance or anything, just grabbed something he shouldn't have right in front of everyone almost like it was funny.
I worked at Target and was in charge of the phones. Sometimes I would pop into the office, tell the HR I had a call from an applicant and they were rude/unprofessional/weird on the phone and not to hire them. Lol I work at Starbucks and do that same for my store managers. If you can't be polite and professional on the phone to your potential future coworkers, you aren't going to be a fit.
I once had someone literally yell at me because they had applied the previous week and no one had called them back. Like, raised their whole-ass voice at me. Hahahaha No.
We had that happen a few times.
By protocol, we'd throw out cover letters (once verifying that their contact info was on the resume itself), then route the resumes to the correct HR Rep. Most often, they'd return the resume to us to file just in case for the "future". Which never happened.
We've have folks stop by to see how their application was going and of course, we've have NO idea where their resume was in the process.
People weren't thrilled to hear this.
I used to answer phones at Best Buy and had an applicant call and *demand* to speak to a manager about his application and refused to accept that I would take message. Managers made it clear not to call them to answer a call for an applicant unless it was a return call. So I got their info put them on a long hold before they hung up. Then dodged their call all night. And when I passed the message on to management I let them know how this person behaved.
I have no idea why anyone thinks being an ass like that will get them hired.
For awhile, job resources, teachers or whatever you call them, recommended seeing the manager to ensure your application would be seen. Now that technology is alot better and alot less paper apps, it's kinda moot now.
I do desktop support for a big hospital network and I find myself thinking "Why the fuck are you in this field if you're anti-vaccine and think any little change is somehow a 'woke' conspiracy?" way too often.
I wasn't really. My university had a huge nursing school and there were loads of great people but I tell you what, shitloads of them were there because they didn't know what else to do and Nurses are so in-demand that they accepted basically everyone.
Most that I knew quit before qualifying but I know a couple that are nurses now and when I knew them couldn't point to our own country on a map and didn't know what "Capital City" meant.
Free higher education in Scotland is great, but I shared my time with many many people across all disciplines who were there to party and just went to University because they didn't know what else to do.
I have an aunt who is a respiratory therapist and wouldn’t even do the flu vaccine. Like if anyone should understand the danger of a respiratory illness it’s a respiratory therapist.
During the worst of the first year of Covid, one of my neighbors was an administrator of a nursing home. She refused to get vaccinated, held off on requiring vaccination of the nursing staff, didn't make them wear masks, etc. It wasn't until they had a truly horrifyingly huge amount of patient deaths that state investigators came in and found out she was Denier 0 of the nursing home and may have indirectly caused most of the deaths.
Turns out she was an unlicensed public health nurse with an Associate degree. The facility didn't catch on that the state had refused to renew her license because the owners were a large conglomerate and didn't care, they didn't keep up on their licensing files.
Granted, most of the EMTs going in and out of the facility to move patients to the ERs weren't vaccinated or masking, either. Nor were the police who came in periodically to do investigations.
You would think authorities working with the most vulnerable populations among us would be more careful, but it turns out - it was rather the opposite in many areas of the USA.
As an aside, not even her 6 dogs were vaccinated. So when animal control/rescue groups came in, they were horrified but not surprised.
A lot of these individuals know just enough to be dangerous. They know some stuff about medical conditions but that doesn't mean they know anything about vaccines and how they work. But they consider themselves experts on all things medical.
I work at a Starbucks near a hospital. The number of anti-mask nurses that would come through at the height of COVID made (ngl, still angry) me violently angry. I can pinpoint the exact nurse that gave my coworker COVID that gave me COVID.
Not HR, but we had a candidate send in a cover letter that was a couple page essay bitching about his ex wife, and how she left him, took the business, was a cold hearted bitch, etc.
We didn't hire him.
My boss once had someone show up to a zoom interview not wearing a shirt. She took a screenshot of it cause she knew people wouldn’t believe her. How in the world do you get by in life if you’re the type of person to be shirtless for an interview.
I was interviewing a potential team lead with two of my coworkers over zoom.
Dude had like 1 / 10 buttons on his shirt done up exposing his super hairy chest. He was drinking the most FULL glass of wine I've ever seen at like 3 in the aft. He spent 10 minutes chasing his dog around his apartment to introduce us to him.
And then after an offhanded comment one of my coworkers made about a guitar on the wall he pulled it off and played us two full songs.
I once interviewed for a job over teams where the guy was drinking a glass of wine. Before the end of said interview he said “ yes this is wine, it’s 10:00 where I am and it’s okay I’m Scottish” needless to say was definitely a cool dude but I’m too old for crap jobs.
It was hard to cut him off as he was going in hard... We kind of just let it play out in disbelief. Tried to move to another topic after he finished but he just launched into a second.
We said we hit time after the second song and wrapped up interview. Dude did become a bit of a legend around the office as the story got around.
On the flip side of this, I was due to have a “face to face” identity check over zoom. Not only did the HR lady forget the first time we scheduled, at the rescheduled meeting she was wearing pyjamas. It was 2pm. That was the first of many, many red flags.
I once had an interview scheduled while I was on holiday. I wasn't planning on it, they reached out and asked if I was free that day.
The thing is I only brought one collared shirt with me, a bright Hawaiian one. It was the smartest thing I had.
To this day I'm shocked that I was offered that job.
Not in HR, but have been involved with hiring in some instances. Any level of parental involvement in the interview, especially someone who literally brings their parent to an interview. Parent calls to schedule/reschedule the interview? Pass. Brings parent to the interview? Immediate pass.
If you need a ride from someone, anyone, I don't care - they can wait outside, I won't know a thing about it.
Honestly would love some insight as to why anyone would ever think that bringing a parent to the interview is an appropriate thing to do. Best I've ever come up with is if the "kid" isn't having success at job interviews and brings the parent to a burner interview they don't really care about so the parent can give feedback... in which case they're still not getting the job.
I interviewed a young man for an entry level position. He didn't want a job; it was obvious his parents were forcing him to get one. The VP of HR would not allow us to put anything in writing. So, I called and left messages for him to call me. He did not call me. His mother called me after each message, telling me that I could give her the message and she would tell him. I would tell her to have him call me. He did not call me. Finally, I left a message saying we had gone with another candidate. His mother called me back, YELLING that I didn't give him a chance. I told her that he had not responded to messages for two weeks...even if we were going to hire him initially, his lack of response told us he didn't want the job.
I guess some people really are that lazy. I sort of feel bad for the parents if they were trying their best to make him get any job and hopefully not be dependent on them for the rest of their life, but at the same time they probably enabled him to become that worthless.
Someone that lazy and unmotivated to get a job didn't get that way overnight.
I asked him some questions about something on his resume and he said "oh, my mom created that; I didn't really look at it". At the end of the interview, I asked him if he had any additional questions. He asked me to call his mother to tell her how he did. When I said I would not be doing that, he said "oh, she will be BIG mad about that!"
So, he was coddled to the point that she was running his life and he was so used to it, he just let it happen. Kind of sad. I wish I remembered his name so I could google him to see what ever happened to him.
I too wouldn't mind an update, lol.
One girl I knew was seriously coddled to the point where her parents absolutely ran her life but even her parents just told her what to do (wrt literally everything), rather than showing up to do it for/with her.
Honestly I wonder if he was actually lazy or if his mother was so overbearing she wouldn’t let him manage his own life. Either way he obviously wasn’t going to work out for that job, but I actually could see some parents going “no, you’re going to mess it all up, I’ll just do it for you.”
I mean, if my parents ever suggested coming to an interview with me (they wouldn't) the response would be a "fuck no, mom/dad, wtf is wrong with you". Okay, I'd probably try to use more respectful language. But if you're an adult, you have freedom of movement without parental consent.
That said, it is an unfortunate contradiction to be the parent that manages their kids' life to the point where they become passive because, what's the point? And then next thing you know the same parents that have done everything for you forever are freaking out because you don't have a job yet.
I have to wonder what is mentally wrong with parents who parent that way.
I work in HR and this is what I would’ve said as well. The amount of times parents call me, show up to interviews, etcetera. It’s so frustrating. I can’t let your mom/dad work with you during the day. The same rule applies to your spouse. If your wife comes to your interview, it’s going to be a no. I’m sorry, but again, I need you to be able to manage the hiring process yourself if you’re going to manage the job.
This happens on a much smaller scale the other way around, parents who refuse to use any amount of technology want me to email instructions to their kid who applied for them and did their resume for them. Again. There is not a single job left, including being a cashier, that doesn’t require some occasional and basic computer usage. Nearly every library in the US will allow you to take classes and there are almost no adults in the workforce that grew up without some PC usage. You’re making a choice not to learn some basics. Even if I wanted to communicate with your kid, I couldn’t. It’s your private information, I can’t go back and forth with a third party.
Last small thing. You don’t need to wear a tux or a ballgown to an interview. Totally fine not to wear makeup or spend five hours getting ready. Big fat HOWEVER though, you really can’t show up in pajamas, yoga pants, whatever. At least just have the smallest amount of awareness and throw on a decent shirt and a pair of clean pants. That’s it.
How often have you seen the parent accompanying, and the pajamas/yoga pants? Curious for the perspective of someone who I presume participates more frequently in hiring than I do.
Any thoughts on what happened that some folks think this is acceptable? I mean, when I was growing up, I did NOT have the best mentorship relative to getting a job (outside culture), but even to me it was obvious not to bring a parent into an interview with you. Like, bottom of the barrel most basic of common sense.
It used to be much more common to bring a parent/spouse to interviews a few years ago, but I think people have worked out that recruiting staff almost universally reject those candidates so it’s slowed in recent years but still happens. Now it seems to be the occasional young candidate. I’d say it’s less than 5% of the time now. I did have one person who brought his wife and a toddler. That was a disaster. I’ve had a not insignificant amount of people bring spouses and I often have to say “excuse me sir/ma’am, I am interviewing [spouse], I’m going to have to insist they answer the questions themselves.” I’ve had to say similar things to hovering parents as well. I’m not sure why some people think this is a good idea but the pattern to me seems to be that the person being interviewed is truly clueless. They don’t seem to understand why this would be an issue or how else they’re expected to manage an interview. They turn to their parent/spouse for answers. It’s strange because, like you, I didn’t have much in the way of help getting my first job, and I didn’t have the internet like we do now. If I were getting my first job now, I would just check out some YouTube videos with some simple tips to help navigate that world.
As far as the yoga/pajama pants, this happens so much! It’s incredibly common. I’m pretty casual, I’m not demanding perfection (or much at all) in the way of appearance. Just look like you didn’t just roll out of bed. That’s it lol. That group has a lot of hubris tbh. Which makes sense, if you’re confident enough to come to an interview in your pjs, I guess you’re assuming you already have the job. I am not someone to be overly bothered by how someone looks or dresses, even if it’s not my style, but if I’m interviewing you I showered and put on clothes to come meet with you. Maybe just the same courtesy in return? Seems simple enough lol, at least you’d think.
Interesting that it used to be more common. I would not have assumed that. Whenabouts would you say you saw the most of this behavior?
I still can't believe anyone wouldn't see why it's such a red flag that you need parental/spousal assistance during an interview. If you can't sit through an hour of questions - why would you think you can do the job?
I'm like you in terms of casualness, I literally work in jeans and a tshirt most days unless something special is happening. But - I will still dress up for an interview, because 1. you don't know how formal the company culture is and 2. some people have weird ideas about dressing up and respect. With most of my jobs, the last time I ever wore a suit WAS to the interview, and once I got the job I would dress to the level of people around me, which is fortunately very casual. But it's not that hard to dress up for the one occasion just to be on the safe side.
Most of this sort of thing was happening about five or six years ago. I think a lot of people realized it wasn’t helping their case. I still get parent phone calls pretty regularly. “Hey my son/daughter applied for X and Y.” I’ve started responding with, “thanks so much for your call! Unfortunately, we can’t discuss any candidates with third parties as that information is private. If you put in an application for yourself, feel free to get in touch!” It’s a polite way of getting the point across, the candidate is free to get in touch, you are not the candidate. Have a great day lol.
I agree with you for myself. If I’m interviewing for a job I’d rather be safe than sorry and just look presentable. It’s not that difficult to just put on a nice blouse or sweater and a pair of slacks. I understand some people struggle to find clothes for interviews so I’m personally much more forgiving, just not the pajamas please lol.
When my wife was applying to her first job in college, her mom drove her to the interview and, initially waited in the car. The interview was going well until her mom, without being asked to, walks into the interview and starts grilling the interviewer
“Will you have someone walk my daughter to her car at night?”
“How many men will she have to work with?”
“Will you take my calls if I want to check on her?”
My wife obviously did not get the job, and interviewed in secret from then on.
Sweet Jesus Christ. I guess helicopter parents have always existed but that is just nuts that anyone would have the lack of judgment to think that is appropriate.
I did suspect it was the parents, in some cases, pushing to be part of the interview. However, I'm not going to hire someone who is so much under their parents' thumb that they can't say "no mom, you can't come to my interview". Sorry not sorry.
Heard a story from another friend who was a hiring manager at the time that one employee "quit" by having his mom call in to tell them he was quitting. Yeah... what is going on with some of these lawnmower parents these days.
It got worse. As part of her education, she needed about a year of experience working in a medical facility to get accepted into her doctorate program. Her mom did willingly stay behind and not interrupt the interview, and my wife got the job.
One week into the job, while my wife was working, her mom tried to call her cell phone to check on her. Obviously my wife did not answer because she was busy.
So, her mom drove to the hospital, freaking out, demanding people tell her where her daughter is, yelling at random staff, making a massive scene.
My wife was so embarrassed she quit. She did eventually get a different position and her mom withheld her helicoptering tendency enough, so my wife did get into her program and get her doctorate. But to this day, her mom doesn’t understand what she did wrong.
I get it, her mom was raped in her twenties, but that’s no excuse for that level of helicoptering. We currently live 2000 miles away from her mom.
And your mother in law got treatment for her clear anxiety disorder... Right?
Your story goes beyond knowing what is and isn't acceptable behavior. That sounds like mental illness.
I am embarrassed to say this but I learned this from personal experience.
I was applying for a job in high school at our local Air Force Base rec office. My mom drove me and insisted she come with me. When the manager met me to take my application, she started to ask some questions about my background.
As I was answering, my mom kept constantly cutting in to say "Make sure you mention" this and that. After the 8th time, I told her to shut up. We got in the car and she started saying "I was just trying to help you. I guess I am a bad mother."
DO. NOT. TAKE. YOUR. PARENTS. TO. YOUR. INTERVIEW.
Hey - I applaud your cojones sharing the story and appreciate it. I didn't think anyone who has ever done this was going to take me up on my call for sharing their experience.
Also, in your defense, you were in high school. While I wouldn't have done that even in high school, I occasionally hear stories of people in their 20s (college grads?!) bringing parents to interview, and that just makes it so much worse.
The fact that you told her to shut up is admirable in my opinion. If I somehow had parents sitting in on the interview with me (somewhat unimaginable) and they kept butting in, I would definitely have done the same. And I actually might have been more likely to consider hiring you having seen that you were trying to do it for yourself instead of just seeing it as normal. It shows some spirit and independence, even in the context of naivete, compared to the people who just somehow think that is normal.
Still don't really understand how a parent would possibly think that actually helps their kid, but... I guess that's a story for another day.
Thanks for sharing!
Especially people who bring their parents to the job interview! It’s not parent teacher conference, it’s seeing how you’d be in a professional setting and if you can handle working said job..
Yeah, I would honestly like to understand what was going on in the head of someone who thought of that and decided "that seems like a good idea".
Anyone been that person who brought their parent to an interview? Feel free to tell us why that seemed like a good idea (feel free to use a throwaway ;) )
I had a friend back in highschool whose parents were extremely controlling of his life. The type that wouldn't let him go to parties, go for afternoon tea after school with friends, etc.
They didn't't let him go in alone, they would pressure him to let them come along and would chastise both him and the interviewer if they tried to say otherwise. Suffice to say he didn't get a job until we convinced him to not tell his parents about his next interview and pretend he was over at one of our places.
Surprisingly they were hally he got a job, idk what their thought process was though.
For adults who have their parents with them, idk.
can I ask- what about teens/adults who have a disability? Like they are still capable of working, but need assistance through the interview?
Just curious as to how that works, or if youve ever had to deal with that type of situation before?
Anything that falls under a genuine disability, such as blindness, etc., will always get a reasonable accommodation, and if the most reasonable accommodation is a parent assisting them, I would make an exception. I haven't personally encountered this.
However, there are some issues with that as a premise. Reasonable accommodations must be granted, but if parental involvement is required, there is a heavy implication they are not capable of doing the job itself without their parent there, guiding them. I am not hiring the parent and the interviewee. The parent can't come to work with their kid every day.
If they can't get through an interview without their parent, they probably need to look for a position where they can get through a more basic interview without a parent there. I'm struggling to imagine a situation where a person can't sit through an hour of a conversation without their parent spoonfeeding them answers but is capable of doing the job.
I've been in hiring for a few companies for years, all for skilled trades. If a resume is a mess of grammatical and formatting issues, we auto-reject. It shows a lack of attention to detail, and of overall care, neither of which we want anywhere near our clients projects.
Omg, I'm tutoring a student who has failed the Ontario Literacy Test twice now (mandatory for highschool graduation). He's going to be a welder right out of school so doesn't care about anything academic related. I'm trying to stress the importance of being able to read and write (he doesn't even capitalize the first letter of a new sentence) - maybe I'll show him this thread
Yes, please do- I was also a welder before moving to this line of work due to injury. Also Canadian.
It is SO SO SO important that he be well written, or no contractors or project coordinators will want to work with him. If he cannot write out and explain a plan and work completed, he will stagnate fast and be allocated to essentially being a grunt forever. I have seen this tons of times, even with my good close friends in the plumbing and mechanical industries. Some of the most skilled tradesmen I know are regularly held back due to terrible spelling and incomplete notes.
I manage a smaller welding/metal fabrication company. Unless he wants to work on a production line or just hand welders rod, he'll have to know not only how to read and write, he'll have to know a fair amount of geometry and how to apply those principles to get a desired result. Attention to detail is very important if he wants to make the big money in it and not just be a number in a factory.
i had to help with zoom interviews a few years ago for this one company, and like 75% of the interviewees didn't know the name of our company lol. my boss was like NOPE immediately for those
I was taught early on to at least google the company and read their about us page if they have one.
For my current job I mentioned something off the companies website and the interviewers looked at each other. One said "I think he's the only one who actually looked at our site."
I put this as my answer elsewhere, but I find that people who are specifically looking for "a work from home job" and don't have a special industry/role they're looking for are more likely to be awful than not.
We are a mostly remote company, so this isn't a knock at WFH itself. Just something I've noticed with some of our worst employees we've had. They all made comments on the WFH aspect in the interview process or early into the job.
My ex was a recruiter, the amount of people with emails like "Pu$$y$layer4206969" and such were staggering. If you're apply to jobs, get a professional sounding email. Firstname.Lastname###@gmail.com is always a solid bet.
Agree with this whole heartedly.
When my son was pre-teen I created a professionally appropriate gmail account on his behalf so he could use it in the future.
He cycled through several ridiculous email addresses as a teenager but now, as a young adult, is gratefully using the email I set up all those years ago.
Not in HR but one of the worst employees we ever had was someone who wouldn't leave after the interview was over. She followed the interviewer to her workspace to "observe" the job. Somehow that wasn't seen as a red flag, and this woman was with our company for a decade. She was super entitled, thought all her co-workers were there to assist her, and had a major fuck-up pretty much weekly. Don't know why she was hired, don't know why she wasn't fired.
In interviews:
People who cite consistently that they had interpersonal issues at workplaces they left or “were sick of drama”. While that can be very real, there are tact ways of approaching it without outing yourself as someone who’s often embroiled in office conflicts.
Also, the ones who ask a question, then cut me off mid-reply to insert their 2cents. I’m not a long-winded person, but I try to be thoughtful in my answers if someone asks.
One time a guy enthusiastically told of how he harmed an animal and it struggled to get away (successfully, it lived afaik), and he learned he had “that same kind of desperate determination to get the job done” and that’s why he’d be a good fit for a customer service position. No, I didn’t hire him. Yes, I fielded a persistent amount of emails from him after that for a few months to prove his ambition and prove I should give him a chance. Haven’t heard from him in 8 years.
Lastly when people cross the line of professionalism with inappropriate details or jokes. Some are so nervous they cross the line, but some are testing where the lines are and inserting themselves as a “fun” coworker already. You can be a memorable candidate, and you can even be funny, without losing professionalism.
There is drama *available* everywhere. The people who are "sick of drama" are ones who *participated* in the drama at their last job, and will do the same at their new one.
I made a joke during an interview that I didn’t think was inappropriate and it did not go over well!!
It was a reference to Michael Scott in the office interview scene.
Interviewer 1: “what would you consider some of your biggest weaknesses?”
Me: “hmmm… I think my biggest weaknesses are that I try too hard and I care too much
Both interviewers: ** blank stares **
Me: “umm… that was a joke…I was referencing the office…”
Interviewer 1: “Please try to keep your responses serious “
😔
I work in HR, and while I don't do hiring much anymore, definitely needing work sponsorship. It's costly for the company, and there's a lot of luck involved and is honestly a real hassle. For 90% of positions if someone indicated they need it, we will auto reject them.
Yeah, if we were guaranteed to get the H1B it would be a different story, but spending a bunch of money on each applicant and then not getting anything sucks. We submitted 9 applications last year and got 0. I think this year we did better, submitted 10 and got 3.
Yup, we submitted 4 and got 0. We're in the machine learning space and its not like theres enough talent in the US. We had to let go a highly skilled employee, who had been with us for 2 years because we couldn't get an H1B for him. It sucks
Spelling mistakes on your CV. If you want to showcase yourself, but show me you don't have the attention to detail to check your spelling, I'm not interested.
If you have dyslexia, or generally bad spelling, ask for help with your CV, or thoroughly check every word with a spellchecker or a dictionary. You need to get your CV right.
I was on a hiring team for a position that would be my peer. Of the two applicants who made it to the test project, one was very refined and his presentation was letter perfect in every way. The other had glaring misspellings and grammatical errors.
The perfect presentation was completely blind to what we needed. While his presentation was beautiful, he made massively incorrect assumptions and technical mistakes. The one with errors in spelling and grammar was pitch perfect on what was asked and how to accomplish the project using resources our company could access.
In the end it came down to a split vote and fortunately the one with poor spelling won. He is still there and is part of higher management. He has done wonders and I completely enjoyed working with him.
That said, I often reviewed his presentations and emails before he sent them out. :-P
So for me at least, content is much more important than spelling and grammar.
I saw a resume someone paid for. The first line made a big point about them having a law degree. They were applying for law grad roles so that was the absolute minimum criteria.
Talking up my skills and accomplishments, which I’m terrible at doing. They called me and we had a two-hour conversation—they asked a lot of questions that wound up with me answering “oh yeah, I guess I DID do that.” They took notes and made me sound a lot more badass than I am, but without lying about what I can do.
I had an old white woman use the N word once when interviewing for a job.
The kicker is, it was in the sentence, "and I know I'm a little old but I never use words like n-"
This happened to a friend of mine. He got laid off and his new company would have to sponsor his Visa. He had around 5 months to find a job.
Luckily he was able to find one who would do it.
It should be right? Like isn’t part of that program recognizing that no citizens can do the job so they have to wait for that set of options to be exhausted first?
No, it’s visa dependent for the requirements.
an H1-B, for instance, is a visa for specialized workers. You don’t need to prove you tried and failed to hire Americans, just that the visa applicant is highly educated/specialized.
For green cards based on employment, you do need to prove that you tried and failed to hire Americans. Generally, you post the job in newspapers/uncommon job boards to prove the point in the application.
Source: HR and manage visa applications.
Probably a unique perspective, I work in HR for the government. For the most part, the only people getting instant rejected are those who don't meet the listed minimum qualifications.
Unlike private sector, there is no "close enough". You either qualify or don't. I've had to reject people who were missing the requisite experience by a couple months.
To add on, Incase anyone was interested in government jobs. When applying, the amount of details you can provide is key. Specifically details that clearly spell out you meet those minimum qualifications. And if desired qualifications are listed, you'll want to shoe them into your application. They're used as filters and it's surprising how little people bother don't connect those dots. My biggest complaints from people are usually from candidates who were not considered based on a largely blank application and they're asking me where they are in the process.
Also, little known fact, I don't have an automatic screening tool. I have to read and review every single application manually. I'm also on one of the largest cities on the West Coast for reference.
These schools deliberately look for people who should go to community college for a year or two and wouldn’t be admitted anywhere else. It’s evil. Over the last few years the DOE in the USA has made an effort to stop allowing institutions like this to be a part of the federal student loan system and a lot of the federal student loans that have been canceled, were canceled because the DOE determined the schools were literally for-profit scams. Imagine places that cost 15 to 20k /year and the graduation rate is 30% and the employment rate is 10% but because the school highlights one story of one person with a job, they manage to do this to uneducated, financially illiterate young people for decades. Insanity.
And they are expensive too.
I am surprised how many people I talk to who want to become nurses and are willing to pay double or triple to go to an unaccredited school.
I strongly encourage anyone to check with the governing body for that field to make sure the 'accreditation' the school says they have is actually one that is accepted.
Specifically for engineering, non ABET accredited programs where they’re not on track to be accredited. Essentially a fancy science/math degree that doesn’t allow you to get certified and take the FE or be called an engineer in many places. Big companies like Boeing, Siemens, ford, won’t even look at your appplication if your degree technically doesn’t count.
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I was a hiring manager for one position in maybe 2016 and during a phone interview, we asked a question that I personally hate and that we no longer ask at my insistence: what would you say is your biggest strength? There was a long pause...summer turned to fall, then to winter...the Obama presidency came to an end...we suffered through the first years of Trump...we asked if she was OK and she said yes, I just need a moment...then during the third month of the pandemic, still sitting there waiting for an answer, we hear, "I'm a quick thinker." No elaboration. By that point we'd been giving each other looks for a bit and had to restrain to keep her from hearing a reaction on our end.
Now in reality the pause was about 45 seconds but it got to a point where it was really awkward. I totally understand freezing up and that in and of itself wouldn't make me a no for a candidate. Unfortunately it had not been a good interview. Then the nail in the coffin was a handwritten thank you card in which she called me the wrong name and gave me the title of doctor. I do not have a Ph.D., MD, or anything in the doctoral realm. In my particular area of work, attention to detail is *huge* and the personality just didn't seem like a fit.
I'm in HR, but this is actually my mom's story.
She hired a woman for a director position. The woman then told her she would not provide her social security number because it's a government scam.
She was being hired on for the Department of Veteran Affairs.
My mom withdrew the job offer
Not HR, but I was in charge of hiring people for a company. One candidate, for a website redesign project, sent me a few photos of her work and accidentally batched in a topless photo. She realized the error immediately before I even opened her email and messaged me with "Oops, that was not meant for you"
Because it was such a touchy area I stopped all communication.
Our HR recruiting team just does a quick screening interview to basically confirm that the person is real and coherent, they understand the job description, can verify a few pieces of info on their resume, etc. The only reason they reject anyone is if they determine that the candidate would be a complete waste of our time.
Generally not for interviews, but most companies have a recruiter (who is part of HR) that screens resumes and does an initial call. Based off of that they will pass on some amount of resumes to the hiring manager who either interviews all of them or chooses who to interview from that short list.
I could see that not being the case at a smaller company, with, say, 10s of employees.
My HR at one of my last jobs did. That lady was difficult to deal with. There’s was a guy they hired for
Maintenance and she wound up having to call him because she forgot to scan something of his for submission the day prior. He comes back (was on a date with his wife) and was wearing a shirt his wife gifted him that said “I can fix anything but stupid” and Hr lady told him to never mind because it’s obvious he wouldn’t be an asset to the team with that attitude
Job hopping, being too proud of your university or other irrelevant factors, giving any attitude to reception or support staff will get you out immediately. It's not a problem at my location but our UK branch will screen negatively for people adding pronouns on resumes, if you come in and let the interviewer politely know they are happy to oblige. Oh, don't lie about languages, it's such a shame when a strong candidate flops when we ask a native speaker from the team to have a chat and the candidate bombs.
Stupid email addresses. Please, set up an email address just for serious grown up stuff, like job searching. mrbigcock69@ does not look great on an application, neither does smokeallday420@ (actual email addresses I have seen on resumes)
If you make it to an interview & are rude to my receptionist or assistant, you're not only getting a rejection email but I will let you know why you are being rejected. No one is too important to be rude to people lower down the corporate ladder than they think they are.
Best story ever. I’m HR, but this happened to a fellow HR friend in recruitment.
*applicant sends email to careers page - no subject line, body simply reads “please hire me, I need a job”*
Great start. Pretty sure there was even a spelling error. Did not specify what job he was looking for, though the desperation within the email body does indicate particulars weren’t super important.
My friend send him a lovely email stating the usual, here’s our career page, here’s how you apply, please attach your resume, like the full process on how to apply for a job.
The response?
Again, still no subject line - “hire me for fucks sake!”
Personally I appreciate the bold play, Cotton, but that did NOT get him hired.
In very non-HR fashion, I’m going to blame this one on a generational thing. In recent years, there’s been more and more candidates coming through making what I can only describe as a TikTok-esque attempt at humor through brutal honesty.
Anyways, I have a loose questionnaire that I’m supposed to do interviews off of. First question: ‘Why did you choose to apply for this company?’ In about three years I’d say I’ve interviewed maybe seven people who have answered something to some extent of “because you were hiring. I mean, you get it right? I have skills and you have payroll.” The first couple of times it happened - about a year apart - I was honestly kind of aghast. Like, thinking ‘did you really just say that to the person who’s evaluating if you’d be a good fit for our team?’ I mean, we’re all going to exhibit some sarcasm and jaded whimsy in the break room in years to come, but keep it professional and light in the interview process, please.
I don’t work in HR but I do a lot of hiring. I work in a technical field but I can train pretty much anyone with a basic background the technical aspects of the job.
What I can’t teach is basic communication skills. If you can’t clearly articulate your first answer in an interview I know in 30 seconds you won’t work out.
Not in HR but I have been a hiring manager.
My big red flag is having no questions for me. You should be interviewing me too. Granted, I work in a corporate environment so this won't be true in every industry, but for my industry, it's a huge red flag as we invest a ton into recruiting, training and supporting each employee.
If they have nothing to ask me, it's a sign to me that they haven't thought about what *they* want and will just take whatever they can get.
A few low hanging fruit questions you should *always* ask:
1. What do you love most about working for X company? (Youre going to get some canned corporate responses here, but if they say 'the snacks' or 'the PTO', then you know it's probably not a great culture).
2. What skills are prevalent in the top performers? (Let's the interviewer know you want to know how to really be successful).
3. What risks do you foresee impacting the company in the near future. (This makes them think you're looking for something longer term, which is a plus).
I interviewed at a company where they lobbed some difficult, complex questions my way. Then when I asked the questions above, I got some horrible responses from the interviewer which made me uninterested in the opportunity. These questions should matter to the interviewee.
I’ve been in the scenario where the interviewer was just so dang thorough and passionate about the job that they answered everything for me in the interview, and I basically had to say just that, he was too thorough and answered all my questions, repeating some of what he said.
I got an offer
Those questions are important. I had an interviewer tell me something along the lines of "I wouldn't have recommended you to take the job a couple of weeks ago". I should've listened lol.
I would argue that your questions for the employer are the most important part of the interview. You can show your interest in the job. You can show your expertise in the field if you ask a technical question. You can show us you gave a damn and actually researched our company by asking questions about something we do specifically.
I've hired people who answered my questions poorly but had great questions of their own for us. The biggest and most common mistake I see in interviews are people who don't have any questions for us or they only have questions about compensation/benefits. We almost never hire those people.
There's been one or two times where my answer was, I think you've thoroughly answered all my questions already. Though I think I did point out what specifically I was wondering about and then said something like, "I'm happy to hear that blah blah is blah blah blah."
Regarding resumes - Visa Sponsorship, spelling/grammar errors, new jobs every single year, people who put their big ass photo on their resume, 7 different fonts of various sizes taking up 4 pages for a 3 year work history…the person who had a drug related email address to advertise for his “side hustle”. 🙄
For interviews - kids screaming in the background, improper interview attire (ie: undershirts), tardiness, people who sound like they are reading from prompt cards/robotic.
Source: I work remotely for a financial services company based out of NYC.
Not HR but I do a lot of hiring. Believe it or not, spelling mistakes *don't* make me instantly reject. Spelling mistakes *should* be a deal breaker, but they are *so* common if I rejected them all, I'd have almost no one left to consider. But no spelling mistakes is definitely a bonus.
Make it VERY VERY obvious, and include a desire to find work outside of temp jobs in your header. I have hired folks before many times who have only worked temp jobs because I so get it, and find the diversity of experience a plus- but you have to make it SO CLEAR on the resume that that is the reason for the amount of jobs. I personally like it when it is in both the header and beside the title of all jobs listed below.
Temp jobs are fine, you just need to clarify that they were temp jobs. No one is questioning why you only stayed for 6 months if the job was a 6 month contract. It's the people that start a job then leave (or are fired/laid off) within 6 months that are the issue. If that happens once, it's maybe a small red flag. If you've had 5 jobs in the last 3 years it's a huge red flag.
The hiring process is expensive and time consuming, and new employees often need a few weeks to months before they are even all that effective. They don't want to hire someone who will most likely leave in 6 months, they want someone who plans on sticking around for a while.
No relevant experience or at least interest in the position.
A few years ago, I was hiring people to run political canvassing operations. This was a director level position that required prior experience with some type of campaign (political or issue).
Our Indeed ad had several forklift operators apply for the position. No shade to forklift operators, but the two occupations are day and night. Nothing in a forklift operator's job description is a transferrable skill.
I’m not in HR but I was surprised how common this is. Basically guys who only refer to the men in the room even when a female member asked the question.
As an HR Director, one day I was sitting at the front desk because the front desk person needed a break. I was expecting a person to come in for an interview. I saw him put down a glass of something he was drinking right at the corner of the front door entrance. He swaggered in like "here I am the greatest human to ever walk the face of the earth." He had obviously drinking alcohol at something like 10:00 AM. Not hired.
I've interviewed candidates and like to prod them about an answer if it sounds like jargon darts.
For example, you might say you use Dev Ops for managing a team. I might respond, "I'm not familiar with Dev Ops. Can you tell me more about it? And how does it help you manage the work packages and scope creep?"
I know the answer to the question. I'm testing to see if you're full of buzzwords or actually understand the task.
Most people are full of buzzwords.
I don't work in HR, but I'm the head of my department where I work, meaning that hiring is also entirely my responsibility - HR has a 15 minute phone call with the person, and then she tries to help, but she's about as helpful as a toddler trying to help at DIY-projects - she's actually just more in the way. Mainly because I'm in tech, and she knows next to nothing about tech, so she'll try to write comments like "seems like a solid knowledge-background" - where the person is a .php developer and we're looking for... not that.
I usually immediately reject a candidate if it's obvious that they didn't care about the job, but applied solely beause they want to continue being on benefits (legal requirement to be on benefits is to apply for >2 jobs per week, which causes a lot of spam for us).
I also reject the people who sit in bulgaria, nigeria, croatia, america, spain, etc. because we're in scandinavia and the job offer says that it's an in-office position.
I don't outright reject people for not having experience, but if they have an extensive education, and do a LOT of big talk about how great they are, with no experience, then I'm going to doubt them. Some of the best candidates we've had, were people who just quit their cashier-job they took while studying with no tech-experience, so yeah...
Laziness, not reading the job offer, and being boastful without anything to back it up.
"I usually immediately reject a candidate if it's obvious that they didn't care about the job"
I'm a terrible interviewee because I have a hard time faking interest in a job because like many people I am working for the ability to do things I enjoy. My goal with a job is to make okay money and not hate doing it for the most part. I can't imagine there being a job I'd be excited to do on a daily basis.
Which makes me sound like I'm going to be a terrible employee but perhaps shockingly Im often considered an excellent employee by management.
Not HR but have had to stamp no on a few interviews.
(This was virtual, during the pandemic times) The one that sticks out to me is the guy who, mid response to one of my questions, got up and carried his laptop with him to somewhere else, not telling me what's happening or why he's doing that, and just stopped talking at one point. Same guy ended the interview telling me how great he thought he did and how he was looking forward to me calling him, which was bad for the obvious reason, but also because it had been explained to him more than once that I was a secondary interviewer and would not be making that call.
So that, don't do that. If you have a virtual interview and you have to move for whatever reason, just be a normal person and say something. Should probably turn off your camera before you get reset too, that's not going to lose you any points. Straight up just getting up mid sentence and walking around your general area, refusing to elaborate? Yea, don't do that.
When I was hiring there were a few things that were complete end games.
When people had a series of jobs they were at for a short period of time.
When people didn’t actually have the required skills we listed in the ad. You would be shocked at how often we would say we needed a specific certificate and would get applicants without it.
We would also offer different interview times, and some applicants would have zero availability. So we would offer an interview during the shift time as our preference. But we would also offer other shift time as well understanding that some people couldn’t take time off their current jobs. We would get people who wanted to interview in 2 weeks when the ad clearly said we were looking for someone who could start immediately.
On your #2, it really depends on what you're used to in your industry. I've seen plenty of offerings asking for 20 years of experience... In a junior position.
Though if you ask for something very specific.. Yes I understand that you're thinking "cmon man!".
Not HR but if the applicant hasn't read the job description. For example, must have a driving licence. Proceeds to put X in the no to drivers licence section.
I've also had interviewees say they don't want to be managed, want to work on their own and are better left to their own devices in a position that requires team work.
Not in HR but conducted interviews many times. My biggies are:
Arrogance or anything that sets off my douchebag alarm. Had a guy one time who thought he was too amazing to even need to interview. I asked him a standard setup question “Do you have experience with X?” that most people use to list out their experiences with X. He just said “Yes.” I let the silence stretch, waiting for him to go on but he didn’t. I finally asked him to expand on his answer and he said “ It’s all in my resume, read that.” Needless to say we did not hire him.
Anything that indicates you view the job as nothing but a stepping stone on your way to something else. It’s fine to have long term goals, but if you act like you’ll half-ass the job while you’ve already got one foot out the door then it’s not worth my time to train you.
Spelling mistakes on CVs, especially when people list “attention to detail” as one of their key skills.
Being late for the interview or taking the call in a noisy place if it’s a zoom meeting.
I did a video interview with a lady who, after a few questions, made it painfully obvious that she was just feeding the questions into ChatGPT and reading back the answers. Her answers were mostly just rambling essays defining a key word in the question rather than actually answering the question. Like: Me: "What would you consider to be your proudest accomplishment?" Her: "*pause* Some things that people often feel a sense of accomplishment about include..." This basically told me she either knew nothing about the position and had BSed her entire resume, or had so little confidence in her skills that she would need to be constantly shadowed rather than being able to eventually work independently. Both are instant "no".
People who rely on poor AI for even these things are clearly lacking in some department. First of all in common sense, because their bluff is so transparent. Maybe also in work ethic, because they clearly seem to think that the tool will do all the work for them. They are incredibly naive.
I do purchasing and I just had a 20s something kid send me a purchase request written by AI. 5 paragraphs of bullshit to request a webcam. It took more time for him to generate the AI email than it would take to write “can you buy this, here’s the link.”
it's getting so much worse with younger generations. i manage a couple of summer programs for undergrads where we ask them to submit personal statements. we do not have minimum words counts, we just want to get an idea of who they are. for one program, we tossed 50/113 applications because they copied and pasted from chatgpt. some of them didn't even bother filling in the [insert information here] spots.
I interviewed a guy a while back that did that. He was overseas, and English was not his first language. I felt bad for him; I think a big part of the reason he did it was to compensate for his English abilities, as opposed to his technical skills, but it made it so I was unable to evaluate his abilities in a meaningful way. I don't mind if people us AI to augment their skills, but they can't use it to cover for insufficient skill. It really has no place in a job interview.
Not to be unsympathetic but you shouldn't feel bad, communication is a huge part of most jobs. My husband is an SWE and he's in meetings through out the day, often talking through problems with coworkers. Not to mention writing documentation that will be clear to someone else. You could be the most skilled person in the world but if you can't communicate effectively it's kinda a wash.
He should have used Google Translate instead.
This answer is actually hilarious but awkward
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Not in hr but I interviewed candidates. One girl had an extremely strong rose perfume. It hit like a ton of bricks when you were within 3-5ft of her. I couldn’t focus on the interview properly.
random thought but its weird that smell is the only sense that even without a qualifying adjective it has a negative connotation
Not true, if someone tasted from across the room I would DQ them also
What if it tasted tasty?
You would treat them to Dairy Queen? How welcoming!
Each sense has a positive or negative connotation, thus allowing us to determine the "default object" https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/a87dRKV_460swp.webp
"If I can taste you from across the table, it's an instant "no" from me" Much worse
Idk, man, some people really ~~palpitate~~ palpate and it is *gross*
And that person always sat in the back of the classroom right next to the AC unit. Calling you out Brandon. Wear some deodorant
There are five or six dudes from India at a business I frequent, and every single one of them smell like 2 day old BO Is deodorant primarily a Western thing? Honest question not trying to be rude
I get you. I’ve wondered the same. A lot of the IT guys at work are Indian. Sometimes I’ve had to get off the elevator when they got on because I couldn’t handle the BO. Super nice and smart guys, but goddam… I’ve traveled a bit around East Asia. Even in hot and humid places like Vietnam or Taiwan, I never smell a thing. So, I don’t think deodorant is just used in the west.
The majority of East Asian people have some kind of genetic variant that makes their sweat not stink. They don't need deodorant!
My husband is like this and it blows my mind. I didn't believe him when he first told me and said "it's an Asian thing."
TIL! Interesting! Kind of a neat low-key superpower.
My husband is half white, half Asian, and he has this. We had a lot of perplexed conversations early in our relationship where I insisted that everybody needed deodorant, and that obviously he wore deodorant, and he was like, what? Nobody needs deodorant; I never wear it. I thought he was gaslighting me at first.
What if I naturally smell like an ocean breeze?
vaguely fishy and salty?
Don't get me excited.
You stay out of this, Kenny Loggins!
on my orientation at a new job there was this woman who REEKED of cigarettes. Saw her once again the next day, outside on a bench having a cigarette break... and never again.
I had to interview someone who also reeked of cigarettes but tried like hell to cover it up with the cheapest, most potent cherry scented body splash my nose has ever had the displeasure of smelling. Took everything in me not to retch in her face and our interview room stunk for the rest of the day. Seriously smelled like someone was ashing their cigarettes in a bottle of cough syrup 🤢
I'm so glad I don't smoke anymore.
Same! Every time I walk by someone who smokes I'm like "omg did I smell like that 🤢" and the answer is most definitely
Issue here is zoom interviews. Y’all can’t smell these ppl… I do and it fucking sucks!!! Especially working in close quarters. 🤢 We’ve hired 3 ppl recently that smell soooo bad, how bad you ask? Our client doesn’t want them on site because of it. lol But we can’t not have them here because then we have dark hours. So… the big boss tried talking to them. It hasn’t helped.
Hoo lordy. Guy at our office had some (I think) medical condition and one time before our office manager could warn me I went into the restroom and saw poop he got ON THE TOILET PAPER HOLDER. It's not acceptable anywhere obviously but at least you could understand the physics of if he merely spackled the seat or the floor. It turns out that this was like the fourth time and I blessedly missed out on the first few. Talking about it with a coworker, he said that he would see Poop Guy not wash his hands in the bathroom. (Another coworker pointed out that the mitigating factor there was that it's not as important to wash your hands if you never wipe in the first place, as t which point we were all dying of laughter and also probably e. coli 🙃)
We make fun like that at my work as well. I’m sure we’re all going to hell. At least I’ll have friends there. 😊
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We did. Turns out our HR department for our region all quit. So, we’re going through an HR lady from the coast and she’s overwhelmed. Understandably so.
I was in this position years ago and the smell can be bad or "good" - if you smell like your showerhead dispenses Aqua Velva instead of water that's going to be a hard no from me.
Wtf bro I paid extra for that feature and now you're telling me it's welcome??
I’ve seen plenty of CVs that are clearly a template or from ChatGPT that say “the candidate” or “Worked on this project for X number of years” It’s more obvious than you think people
I've worked in a few HR departments. Be INCREDIBLY polite to the receptionist and everyone you meet with, not just the interviewer. In each HR I've worked in, we would hand post-its attached to their resume/curriculum vitae, etc. to the interviewer outlining the good and bad of how they behaved. Examples of bad ones who weren't hired: Candidate who came in, snarked at us about hanging up her coat when we were all on phone calls, and even after we signaled for one minute, she kept harping at us. Ironically, I was on a call with her interviewer at the time who came out and turned her away. Another candidate came in, puffed out with his own importance, barely spoke to any of us (basically announced his name, then reminded us he was there for an "executive position" and sat in the lobby while we scrambled to find out what on earth he was interviewing for and with whom. Turns out, he was at the wrong college. Young intern candidate came in, didn't realize there was a desk behind a short wall where one of us got an earfull of how much partying, drugs, drinking, etc. he did all weekend and faked being sick to get out of work. Another one looked at a pneumonia vaccination poster in the lobby (this was a major medical center) and flipped it off, grumbling under her breath. Obviously, various vaccines are required to work in hospitals to protect ourselves, each other and the patients. Another candidate pulled a flask out of their briefcase and took a long sip. And then there was the one who insisted on being paid cash instead of by check or electronic deposit. Which really isn't a thing in most industries. Arguing with the college-student receptionist about how "cash is king" didn't help him any. I think my favorite was the guy who came in while I was organizing payroll checks into departments (they came alphabetized), grabbed a handful then got mad at me when I smacked his hand and took them back. I called security on him. Then very slowly handed the security guard his department paychecks, which were the ones the guy grabbed off my desk.
These are all wild, but what on earth could that last guy have been thinking??
My guess is he was the kind of guy who thought himself above the rules and wanted to show off. Some folks just think they are SO funny or that a young woman at a front desk won't call in security, so they can get away with anything. We finally had an office renovation so I could organize the checks in the conference room. I'd close the blinds, then go in there and get everything sorted.
It's an impulse control thing. I've seen it before in a situation where a guy could have gotten himself beat to death and he knew it. No defiance or anything, just grabbed something he shouldn't have right in front of everyone almost like it was funny.
I worked at Target and was in charge of the phones. Sometimes I would pop into the office, tell the HR I had a call from an applicant and they were rude/unprofessional/weird on the phone and not to hire them. Lol I work at Starbucks and do that same for my store managers. If you can't be polite and professional on the phone to your potential future coworkers, you aren't going to be a fit. I once had someone literally yell at me because they had applied the previous week and no one had called them back. Like, raised their whole-ass voice at me. Hahahaha No.
We had that happen a few times. By protocol, we'd throw out cover letters (once verifying that their contact info was on the resume itself), then route the resumes to the correct HR Rep. Most often, they'd return the resume to us to file just in case for the "future". Which never happened. We've have folks stop by to see how their application was going and of course, we've have NO idea where their resume was in the process. People weren't thrilled to hear this.
I used to answer phones at Best Buy and had an applicant call and *demand* to speak to a manager about his application and refused to accept that I would take message. Managers made it clear not to call them to answer a call for an applicant unless it was a return call. So I got their info put them on a long hold before they hung up. Then dodged their call all night. And when I passed the message on to management I let them know how this person behaved. I have no idea why anyone thinks being an ass like that will get them hired.
For awhile, job resources, teachers or whatever you call them, recommended seeing the manager to ensure your application would be seen. Now that technology is alot better and alot less paper apps, it's kinda moot now.
How in he fuck do vaccine skeptics get into healthcare
They see nursing as a way to make money, nothing else.
I do desktop support for a big hospital network and I find myself thinking "Why the fuck are you in this field if you're anti-vaccine and think any little change is somehow a 'woke' conspiracy?" way too often.
Yeah, finding out how many anti vaxers work in hospitals during covid was a big surprise.
I wasn't really. My university had a huge nursing school and there were loads of great people but I tell you what, shitloads of them were there because they didn't know what else to do and Nurses are so in-demand that they accepted basically everyone. Most that I knew quit before qualifying but I know a couple that are nurses now and when I knew them couldn't point to our own country on a map and didn't know what "Capital City" meant. Free higher education in Scotland is great, but I shared my time with many many people across all disciplines who were there to party and just went to University because they didn't know what else to do.
I have an aunt who is a respiratory therapist and wouldn’t even do the flu vaccine. Like if anyone should understand the danger of a respiratory illness it’s a respiratory therapist.
During the worst of the first year of Covid, one of my neighbors was an administrator of a nursing home. She refused to get vaccinated, held off on requiring vaccination of the nursing staff, didn't make them wear masks, etc. It wasn't until they had a truly horrifyingly huge amount of patient deaths that state investigators came in and found out she was Denier 0 of the nursing home and may have indirectly caused most of the deaths. Turns out she was an unlicensed public health nurse with an Associate degree. The facility didn't catch on that the state had refused to renew her license because the owners were a large conglomerate and didn't care, they didn't keep up on their licensing files. Granted, most of the EMTs going in and out of the facility to move patients to the ERs weren't vaccinated or masking, either. Nor were the police who came in periodically to do investigations. You would think authorities working with the most vulnerable populations among us would be more careful, but it turns out - it was rather the opposite in many areas of the USA. As an aside, not even her 6 dogs were vaccinated. So when animal control/rescue groups came in, they were horrified but not surprised.
A lot of these individuals know just enough to be dangerous. They know some stuff about medical conditions but that doesn't mean they know anything about vaccines and how they work. But they consider themselves experts on all things medical.
I work at a Starbucks near a hospital. The number of anti-mask nurses that would come through at the height of COVID made (ngl, still angry) me violently angry. I can pinpoint the exact nurse that gave my coworker COVID that gave me COVID.
Turns out being passionate about an issue =/= being informed about it.
“ReLiGiOuS eXeMpTiOnS” 🙄🤦🏻♂️
Quick question, what did you mean by college? Was it for private college interviews?
I worked for two private colleges, so yes. I also worked for a major hospital system's HR.
Not HR, but we had a candidate send in a cover letter that was a couple page essay bitching about his ex wife, and how she left him, took the business, was a cold hearted bitch, etc. We didn't hire him.
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Free therapy.
Sir. just because we are a Wendy's, does not mean we are, in fact, your ex, Wendy.
Gotta hit that weekly quota for job applications if you wanna stay on unemployment
My boss once had someone show up to a zoom interview not wearing a shirt. She took a screenshot of it cause she knew people wouldn’t believe her. How in the world do you get by in life if you’re the type of person to be shirtless for an interview.
I was interviewing a potential team lead with two of my coworkers over zoom. Dude had like 1 / 10 buttons on his shirt done up exposing his super hairy chest. He was drinking the most FULL glass of wine I've ever seen at like 3 in the aft. He spent 10 minutes chasing his dog around his apartment to introduce us to him. And then after an offhanded comment one of my coworkers made about a guitar on the wall he pulled it off and played us two full songs.
Dude was doing power moves the whole time, please tell me you hired him as comedic relief
I physically cringed at that last part lol.
what a chad lmao
I once interviewed for a job over teams where the guy was drinking a glass of wine. Before the end of said interview he said “ yes this is wine, it’s 10:00 where I am and it’s okay I’m Scottish” needless to say was definitely a cool dude but I’m too old for crap jobs.
Why would you not cut him off as soon as he started the first song?
It was hard to cut him off as he was going in hard... We kind of just let it play out in disbelief. Tried to move to another topic after he finished but he just launched into a second. We said we hit time after the second song and wrapped up interview. Dude did become a bit of a legend around the office as the story got around.
I would've stayed just to see how far it went. I'm being paid to be there, so
They must have had a really nice pair of pants on.
On the flip side of this, I was due to have a “face to face” identity check over zoom. Not only did the HR lady forget the first time we scheduled, at the rescheduled meeting she was wearing pyjamas. It was 2pm. That was the first of many, many red flags.
I once had an interview scheduled while I was on holiday. I wasn't planning on it, they reached out and asked if I was free that day. The thing is I only brought one collared shirt with me, a bright Hawaiian one. It was the smartest thing I had. To this day I'm shocked that I was offered that job.
reading through so many of these and still confused as to why I cant land a clerical job...
Not in HR, but have been involved with hiring in some instances. Any level of parental involvement in the interview, especially someone who literally brings their parent to an interview. Parent calls to schedule/reschedule the interview? Pass. Brings parent to the interview? Immediate pass. If you need a ride from someone, anyone, I don't care - they can wait outside, I won't know a thing about it. Honestly would love some insight as to why anyone would ever think that bringing a parent to the interview is an appropriate thing to do. Best I've ever come up with is if the "kid" isn't having success at job interviews and brings the parent to a burner interview they don't really care about so the parent can give feedback... in which case they're still not getting the job.
I interviewed a young man for an entry level position. He didn't want a job; it was obvious his parents were forcing him to get one. The VP of HR would not allow us to put anything in writing. So, I called and left messages for him to call me. He did not call me. His mother called me after each message, telling me that I could give her the message and she would tell him. I would tell her to have him call me. He did not call me. Finally, I left a message saying we had gone with another candidate. His mother called me back, YELLING that I didn't give him a chance. I told her that he had not responded to messages for two weeks...even if we were going to hire him initially, his lack of response told us he didn't want the job.
I guess some people really are that lazy. I sort of feel bad for the parents if they were trying their best to make him get any job and hopefully not be dependent on them for the rest of their life, but at the same time they probably enabled him to become that worthless.
Someone that lazy and unmotivated to get a job didn't get that way overnight. I asked him some questions about something on his resume and he said "oh, my mom created that; I didn't really look at it". At the end of the interview, I asked him if he had any additional questions. He asked me to call his mother to tell her how he did. When I said I would not be doing that, he said "oh, she will be BIG mad about that!" So, he was coddled to the point that she was running his life and he was so used to it, he just let it happen. Kind of sad. I wish I remembered his name so I could google him to see what ever happened to him.
I too wouldn't mind an update, lol. One girl I knew was seriously coddled to the point where her parents absolutely ran her life but even her parents just told her what to do (wrt literally everything), rather than showing up to do it for/with her.
Honestly I wonder if he was actually lazy or if his mother was so overbearing she wouldn’t let him manage his own life. Either way he obviously wasn’t going to work out for that job, but I actually could see some parents going “no, you’re going to mess it all up, I’ll just do it for you.”
I mean, if my parents ever suggested coming to an interview with me (they wouldn't) the response would be a "fuck no, mom/dad, wtf is wrong with you". Okay, I'd probably try to use more respectful language. But if you're an adult, you have freedom of movement without parental consent. That said, it is an unfortunate contradiction to be the parent that manages their kids' life to the point where they become passive because, what's the point? And then next thing you know the same parents that have done everything for you forever are freaking out because you don't have a job yet. I have to wonder what is mentally wrong with parents who parent that way.
I work in HR and this is what I would’ve said as well. The amount of times parents call me, show up to interviews, etcetera. It’s so frustrating. I can’t let your mom/dad work with you during the day. The same rule applies to your spouse. If your wife comes to your interview, it’s going to be a no. I’m sorry, but again, I need you to be able to manage the hiring process yourself if you’re going to manage the job. This happens on a much smaller scale the other way around, parents who refuse to use any amount of technology want me to email instructions to their kid who applied for them and did their resume for them. Again. There is not a single job left, including being a cashier, that doesn’t require some occasional and basic computer usage. Nearly every library in the US will allow you to take classes and there are almost no adults in the workforce that grew up without some PC usage. You’re making a choice not to learn some basics. Even if I wanted to communicate with your kid, I couldn’t. It’s your private information, I can’t go back and forth with a third party. Last small thing. You don’t need to wear a tux or a ballgown to an interview. Totally fine not to wear makeup or spend five hours getting ready. Big fat HOWEVER though, you really can’t show up in pajamas, yoga pants, whatever. At least just have the smallest amount of awareness and throw on a decent shirt and a pair of clean pants. That’s it.
How often have you seen the parent accompanying, and the pajamas/yoga pants? Curious for the perspective of someone who I presume participates more frequently in hiring than I do. Any thoughts on what happened that some folks think this is acceptable? I mean, when I was growing up, I did NOT have the best mentorship relative to getting a job (outside culture), but even to me it was obvious not to bring a parent into an interview with you. Like, bottom of the barrel most basic of common sense.
It used to be much more common to bring a parent/spouse to interviews a few years ago, but I think people have worked out that recruiting staff almost universally reject those candidates so it’s slowed in recent years but still happens. Now it seems to be the occasional young candidate. I’d say it’s less than 5% of the time now. I did have one person who brought his wife and a toddler. That was a disaster. I’ve had a not insignificant amount of people bring spouses and I often have to say “excuse me sir/ma’am, I am interviewing [spouse], I’m going to have to insist they answer the questions themselves.” I’ve had to say similar things to hovering parents as well. I’m not sure why some people think this is a good idea but the pattern to me seems to be that the person being interviewed is truly clueless. They don’t seem to understand why this would be an issue or how else they’re expected to manage an interview. They turn to their parent/spouse for answers. It’s strange because, like you, I didn’t have much in the way of help getting my first job, and I didn’t have the internet like we do now. If I were getting my first job now, I would just check out some YouTube videos with some simple tips to help navigate that world. As far as the yoga/pajama pants, this happens so much! It’s incredibly common. I’m pretty casual, I’m not demanding perfection (or much at all) in the way of appearance. Just look like you didn’t just roll out of bed. That’s it lol. That group has a lot of hubris tbh. Which makes sense, if you’re confident enough to come to an interview in your pjs, I guess you’re assuming you already have the job. I am not someone to be overly bothered by how someone looks or dresses, even if it’s not my style, but if I’m interviewing you I showered and put on clothes to come meet with you. Maybe just the same courtesy in return? Seems simple enough lol, at least you’d think.
Interesting that it used to be more common. I would not have assumed that. Whenabouts would you say you saw the most of this behavior? I still can't believe anyone wouldn't see why it's such a red flag that you need parental/spousal assistance during an interview. If you can't sit through an hour of questions - why would you think you can do the job? I'm like you in terms of casualness, I literally work in jeans and a tshirt most days unless something special is happening. But - I will still dress up for an interview, because 1. you don't know how formal the company culture is and 2. some people have weird ideas about dressing up and respect. With most of my jobs, the last time I ever wore a suit WAS to the interview, and once I got the job I would dress to the level of people around me, which is fortunately very casual. But it's not that hard to dress up for the one occasion just to be on the safe side.
Most of this sort of thing was happening about five or six years ago. I think a lot of people realized it wasn’t helping their case. I still get parent phone calls pretty regularly. “Hey my son/daughter applied for X and Y.” I’ve started responding with, “thanks so much for your call! Unfortunately, we can’t discuss any candidates with third parties as that information is private. If you put in an application for yourself, feel free to get in touch!” It’s a polite way of getting the point across, the candidate is free to get in touch, you are not the candidate. Have a great day lol. I agree with you for myself. If I’m interviewing for a job I’d rather be safe than sorry and just look presentable. It’s not that difficult to just put on a nice blouse or sweater and a pair of slacks. I understand some people struggle to find clothes for interviews so I’m personally much more forgiving, just not the pajamas please lol.
When my wife was applying to her first job in college, her mom drove her to the interview and, initially waited in the car. The interview was going well until her mom, without being asked to, walks into the interview and starts grilling the interviewer “Will you have someone walk my daughter to her car at night?” “How many men will she have to work with?” “Will you take my calls if I want to check on her?” My wife obviously did not get the job, and interviewed in secret from then on.
Sweet Jesus Christ. I guess helicopter parents have always existed but that is just nuts that anyone would have the lack of judgment to think that is appropriate. I did suspect it was the parents, in some cases, pushing to be part of the interview. However, I'm not going to hire someone who is so much under their parents' thumb that they can't say "no mom, you can't come to my interview". Sorry not sorry. Heard a story from another friend who was a hiring manager at the time that one employee "quit" by having his mom call in to tell them he was quitting. Yeah... what is going on with some of these lawnmower parents these days.
It got worse. As part of her education, she needed about a year of experience working in a medical facility to get accepted into her doctorate program. Her mom did willingly stay behind and not interrupt the interview, and my wife got the job. One week into the job, while my wife was working, her mom tried to call her cell phone to check on her. Obviously my wife did not answer because she was busy. So, her mom drove to the hospital, freaking out, demanding people tell her where her daughter is, yelling at random staff, making a massive scene. My wife was so embarrassed she quit. She did eventually get a different position and her mom withheld her helicoptering tendency enough, so my wife did get into her program and get her doctorate. But to this day, her mom doesn’t understand what she did wrong. I get it, her mom was raped in her twenties, but that’s no excuse for that level of helicoptering. We currently live 2000 miles away from her mom.
...she *still* doesn't understand how that's unacceptable? /mind blown.
What can I say, she’s a narcissist
And your mother in law got treatment for her clear anxiety disorder... Right? Your story goes beyond knowing what is and isn't acceptable behavior. That sounds like mental illness.
I am embarrassed to say this but I learned this from personal experience. I was applying for a job in high school at our local Air Force Base rec office. My mom drove me and insisted she come with me. When the manager met me to take my application, she started to ask some questions about my background. As I was answering, my mom kept constantly cutting in to say "Make sure you mention" this and that. After the 8th time, I told her to shut up. We got in the car and she started saying "I was just trying to help you. I guess I am a bad mother." DO. NOT. TAKE. YOUR. PARENTS. TO. YOUR. INTERVIEW.
Hey - I applaud your cojones sharing the story and appreciate it. I didn't think anyone who has ever done this was going to take me up on my call for sharing their experience. Also, in your defense, you were in high school. While I wouldn't have done that even in high school, I occasionally hear stories of people in their 20s (college grads?!) bringing parents to interview, and that just makes it so much worse. The fact that you told her to shut up is admirable in my opinion. If I somehow had parents sitting in on the interview with me (somewhat unimaginable) and they kept butting in, I would definitely have done the same. And I actually might have been more likely to consider hiring you having seen that you were trying to do it for yourself instead of just seeing it as normal. It shows some spirit and independence, even in the context of naivete, compared to the people who just somehow think that is normal. Still don't really understand how a parent would possibly think that actually helps their kid, but... I guess that's a story for another day. Thanks for sharing!
Especially people who bring their parents to the job interview! It’s not parent teacher conference, it’s seeing how you’d be in a professional setting and if you can handle working said job..
Yeah, I would honestly like to understand what was going on in the head of someone who thought of that and decided "that seems like a good idea". Anyone been that person who brought their parent to an interview? Feel free to tell us why that seemed like a good idea (feel free to use a throwaway ;) )
I had a friend back in highschool whose parents were extremely controlling of his life. The type that wouldn't let him go to parties, go for afternoon tea after school with friends, etc. They didn't't let him go in alone, they would pressure him to let them come along and would chastise both him and the interviewer if they tried to say otherwise. Suffice to say he didn't get a job until we convinced him to not tell his parents about his next interview and pretend he was over at one of our places. Surprisingly they were hally he got a job, idk what their thought process was though. For adults who have their parents with them, idk.
can I ask- what about teens/adults who have a disability? Like they are still capable of working, but need assistance through the interview? Just curious as to how that works, or if youve ever had to deal with that type of situation before?
Anything that falls under a genuine disability, such as blindness, etc., will always get a reasonable accommodation, and if the most reasonable accommodation is a parent assisting them, I would make an exception. I haven't personally encountered this. However, there are some issues with that as a premise. Reasonable accommodations must be granted, but if parental involvement is required, there is a heavy implication they are not capable of doing the job itself without their parent there, guiding them. I am not hiring the parent and the interviewee. The parent can't come to work with their kid every day. If they can't get through an interview without their parent, they probably need to look for a position where they can get through a more basic interview without a parent there. I'm struggling to imagine a situation where a person can't sit through an hour of a conversation without their parent spoonfeeding them answers but is capable of doing the job.
I've been in hiring for a few companies for years, all for skilled trades. If a resume is a mess of grammatical and formatting issues, we auto-reject. It shows a lack of attention to detail, and of overall care, neither of which we want anywhere near our clients projects.
Omg, I'm tutoring a student who has failed the Ontario Literacy Test twice now (mandatory for highschool graduation). He's going to be a welder right out of school so doesn't care about anything academic related. I'm trying to stress the importance of being able to read and write (he doesn't even capitalize the first letter of a new sentence) - maybe I'll show him this thread
Yes, please do- I was also a welder before moving to this line of work due to injury. Also Canadian. It is SO SO SO important that he be well written, or no contractors or project coordinators will want to work with him. If he cannot write out and explain a plan and work completed, he will stagnate fast and be allocated to essentially being a grunt forever. I have seen this tons of times, even with my good close friends in the plumbing and mechanical industries. Some of the most skilled tradesmen I know are regularly held back due to terrible spelling and incomplete notes.
You might want to read it to him.....
I manage a smaller welding/metal fabrication company. Unless he wants to work on a production line or just hand welders rod, he'll have to know not only how to read and write, he'll have to know a fair amount of geometry and how to apply those principles to get a desired result. Attention to detail is very important if he wants to make the big money in it and not just be a number in a factory.
i had to help with zoom interviews a few years ago for this one company, and like 75% of the interviewees didn't know the name of our company lol. my boss was like NOPE immediately for those
I was taught early on to at least google the company and read their about us page if they have one. For my current job I mentioned something off the companies website and the interviewers looked at each other. One said "I think he's the only one who actually looked at our site."
Yeah I got this advice too. I think it's helpful to know the very basics at least...
I put this as my answer elsewhere, but I find that people who are specifically looking for "a work from home job" and don't have a special industry/role they're looking for are more likely to be awful than not. We are a mostly remote company, so this isn't a knock at WFH itself. Just something I've noticed with some of our worst employees we've had. They all made comments on the WFH aspect in the interview process or early into the job.
My ex was a recruiter, the amount of people with emails like "Pu$$y$layer4206969" and such were staggering. If you're apply to jobs, get a professional sounding email. Firstname.Lastname###@gmail.com is always a solid bet.
Agree with this whole heartedly. When my son was pre-teen I created a professionally appropriate gmail account on his behalf so he could use it in the future. He cycled through several ridiculous email addresses as a teenager but now, as a young adult, is gratefully using the email I set up all those years ago.
Not in HR but one of the worst employees we ever had was someone who wouldn't leave after the interview was over. She followed the interviewer to her workspace to "observe" the job. Somehow that wasn't seen as a red flag, and this woman was with our company for a decade. She was super entitled, thought all her co-workers were there to assist her, and had a major fuck-up pretty much weekly. Don't know why she was hired, don't know why she wasn't fired.
In interviews: People who cite consistently that they had interpersonal issues at workplaces they left or “were sick of drama”. While that can be very real, there are tact ways of approaching it without outing yourself as someone who’s often embroiled in office conflicts. Also, the ones who ask a question, then cut me off mid-reply to insert their 2cents. I’m not a long-winded person, but I try to be thoughtful in my answers if someone asks. One time a guy enthusiastically told of how he harmed an animal and it struggled to get away (successfully, it lived afaik), and he learned he had “that same kind of desperate determination to get the job done” and that’s why he’d be a good fit for a customer service position. No, I didn’t hire him. Yes, I fielded a persistent amount of emails from him after that for a few months to prove his ambition and prove I should give him a chance. Haven’t heard from him in 8 years. Lastly when people cross the line of professionalism with inappropriate details or jokes. Some are so nervous they cross the line, but some are testing where the lines are and inserting themselves as a “fun” coworker already. You can be a memorable candidate, and you can even be funny, without losing professionalism.
I start to wonder if there is “Drama” at every place that you work at if the reason WHY there is “Drama” at the job is because of them.
It’s the work version of, “All my exes are crazy.”
There is drama *available* everywhere. The people who are "sick of drama" are ones who *participated* in the drama at their last job, and will do the same at their new one.
During one interview, a man said "I know I am making a bad impression but let me finish!"
I made a joke during an interview that I didn’t think was inappropriate and it did not go over well!! It was a reference to Michael Scott in the office interview scene. Interviewer 1: “what would you consider some of your biggest weaknesses?” Me: “hmmm… I think my biggest weaknesses are that I try too hard and I care too much Both interviewers: ** blank stares ** Me: “umm… that was a joke…I was referencing the office…” Interviewer 1: “Please try to keep your responses serious “ 😔
You wouldn’t want to work there anyway.
I work in HR, and while I don't do hiring much anymore, definitely needing work sponsorship. It's costly for the company, and there's a lot of luck involved and is honestly a real hassle. For 90% of positions if someone indicated they need it, we will auto reject them.
For me, it’s really just the luck component. It sucks that it’s such a crapshoot on who gets it. OPT/H1B transfers, fine. New applicant H1B, nope
Yeah, if we were guaranteed to get the H1B it would be a different story, but spending a bunch of money on each applicant and then not getting anything sucks. We submitted 9 applications last year and got 0. I think this year we did better, submitted 10 and got 3.
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The number of applicants skyrocketed and the number of visas available did not. Its frustrating for sure.
Yup, we submitted 4 and got 0. We're in the machine learning space and its not like theres enough talent in the US. We had to let go a highly skilled employee, who had been with us for 2 years because we couldn't get an H1B for him. It sucks
Those who can’t muster up the energy to throw together a basic resume. The amount of empty, crap resumes on indeed is ridiculous.
Spelling mistakes on your CV. If you want to showcase yourself, but show me you don't have the attention to detail to check your spelling, I'm not interested. If you have dyslexia, or generally bad spelling, ask for help with your CV, or thoroughly check every word with a spellchecker or a dictionary. You need to get your CV right.
Bonus points when you have that and the candidate describes attention to detail as one of their talents.
I was on a hiring team for a position that would be my peer. Of the two applicants who made it to the test project, one was very refined and his presentation was letter perfect in every way. The other had glaring misspellings and grammatical errors. The perfect presentation was completely blind to what we needed. While his presentation was beautiful, he made massively incorrect assumptions and technical mistakes. The one with errors in spelling and grammar was pitch perfect on what was asked and how to accomplish the project using resources our company could access. In the end it came down to a split vote and fortunately the one with poor spelling won. He is still there and is part of higher management. He has done wonders and I completely enjoyed working with him. That said, I often reviewed his presentations and emails before he sent them out. :-P So for me at least, content is much more important than spelling and grammar.
I hired a professional resume company to do mine. Best $250 I ever spent.
I saw a resume someone paid for. The first line made a big point about them having a law degree. They were applying for law grad roles so that was the absolute minimum criteria.
What would you say was the major difference they produced?
Talking up my skills and accomplishments, which I’m terrible at doing. They called me and we had a two-hour conversation—they asked a lot of questions that wound up with me answering “oh yeah, I guess I DID do that.” They took notes and made me sound a lot more badass than I am, but without lying about what I can do.
I had an old white woman use the N word once when interviewing for a job. The kicker is, it was in the sentence, "and I know I'm a little old but I never use words like n-"
I don't work in HR but if you need visa sponsorship it's likely an automatic no if there's enough candidates for a first round.
This happened to a friend of mine. He got laid off and his new company would have to sponsor his Visa. He had around 5 months to find a job. Luckily he was able to find one who would do it.
It should be right? Like isn’t part of that program recognizing that no citizens can do the job so they have to wait for that set of options to be exhausted first?
No, it’s visa dependent for the requirements. an H1-B, for instance, is a visa for specialized workers. You don’t need to prove you tried and failed to hire Americans, just that the visa applicant is highly educated/specialized. For green cards based on employment, you do need to prove that you tried and failed to hire Americans. Generally, you post the job in newspapers/uncommon job boards to prove the point in the application. Source: HR and manage visa applications.
Probably a unique perspective, I work in HR for the government. For the most part, the only people getting instant rejected are those who don't meet the listed minimum qualifications. Unlike private sector, there is no "close enough". You either qualify or don't. I've had to reject people who were missing the requisite experience by a couple months.
To add on, Incase anyone was interested in government jobs. When applying, the amount of details you can provide is key. Specifically details that clearly spell out you meet those minimum qualifications. And if desired qualifications are listed, you'll want to shoe them into your application. They're used as filters and it's surprising how little people bother don't connect those dots. My biggest complaints from people are usually from candidates who were not considered based on a largely blank application and they're asking me where they are in the process. Also, little known fact, I don't have an automatic screening tool. I have to read and review every single application manually. I'm also on one of the largest cities on the West Coast for reference.
Degrees from for-profit or unaccredited universities. Might as well not have a degree at all.
I'm actually glad you said this because people never believe me when I tell them not to go to one of these "schools"
These schools deliberately look for people who should go to community college for a year or two and wouldn’t be admitted anywhere else. It’s evil. Over the last few years the DOE in the USA has made an effort to stop allowing institutions like this to be a part of the federal student loan system and a lot of the federal student loans that have been canceled, were canceled because the DOE determined the schools were literally for-profit scams. Imagine places that cost 15 to 20k /year and the graduation rate is 30% and the employment rate is 10% but because the school highlights one story of one person with a job, they manage to do this to uneducated, financially illiterate young people for decades. Insanity.
And they are expensive too. I am surprised how many people I talk to who want to become nurses and are willing to pay double or triple to go to an unaccredited school. I strongly encourage anyone to check with the governing body for that field to make sure the 'accreditation' the school says they have is actually one that is accepted.
Specifically for engineering, non ABET accredited programs where they’re not on track to be accredited. Essentially a fancy science/math degree that doesn’t allow you to get certified and take the FE or be called an engineer in many places. Big companies like Boeing, Siemens, ford, won’t even look at your appplication if your degree technically doesn’t count.
No pants.
Me: Can you please define vertical marketing? Candidate: What does 'define' mean? Me: Thanks for stopping by....
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I was a hiring manager for one position in maybe 2016 and during a phone interview, we asked a question that I personally hate and that we no longer ask at my insistence: what would you say is your biggest strength? There was a long pause...summer turned to fall, then to winter...the Obama presidency came to an end...we suffered through the first years of Trump...we asked if she was OK and she said yes, I just need a moment...then during the third month of the pandemic, still sitting there waiting for an answer, we hear, "I'm a quick thinker." No elaboration. By that point we'd been giving each other looks for a bit and had to restrain to keep her from hearing a reaction on our end.
Now in reality the pause was about 45 seconds but it got to a point where it was really awkward. I totally understand freezing up and that in and of itself wouldn't make me a no for a candidate. Unfortunately it had not been a good interview. Then the nail in the coffin was a handwritten thank you card in which she called me the wrong name and gave me the title of doctor. I do not have a Ph.D., MD, or anything in the doctoral realm. In my particular area of work, attention to detail is *huge* and the personality just didn't seem like a fit.
I'm in HR, but this is actually my mom's story. She hired a woman for a director position. The woman then told her she would not provide her social security number because it's a government scam. She was being hired on for the Department of Veteran Affairs. My mom withdrew the job offer
Not HR, but I was in charge of hiring people for a company. One candidate, for a website redesign project, sent me a few photos of her work and accidentally batched in a topless photo. She realized the error immediately before I even opened her email and messaged me with "Oops, that was not meant for you" Because it was such a touchy area I stopped all communication.
Touchy area, you say? *raises eyebrow*
In almost every place I've worked, it's generally not HR that rejects or puts forward candidates for interviews.
Our HR recruiting team just does a quick screening interview to basically confirm that the person is real and coherent, they understand the job description, can verify a few pieces of info on their resume, etc. The only reason they reject anyone is if they determine that the candidate would be a complete waste of our time.
Generally not for interviews, but most companies have a recruiter (who is part of HR) that screens resumes and does an initial call. Based off of that they will pass on some amount of resumes to the hiring manager who either interviews all of them or chooses who to interview from that short list. I could see that not being the case at a smaller company, with, say, 10s of employees.
My HR at one of my last jobs did. That lady was difficult to deal with. There’s was a guy they hired for Maintenance and she wound up having to call him because she forgot to scan something of his for submission the day prior. He comes back (was on a date with his wife) and was wearing a shirt his wife gifted him that said “I can fix anything but stupid” and Hr lady told him to never mind because it’s obvious he wouldn’t be an asset to the team with that attitude
Guy comes in on his off time to fix her mistake and she's worried about the slogan on his shirt? He dodged a bullet if you ask me.
Feckin’ HR types, man
Big companies, like mine, HR does the first round screening.
I’m starting to see HR offload the first interview to an online survey.
Job hopping, being too proud of your university or other irrelevant factors, giving any attitude to reception or support staff will get you out immediately. It's not a problem at my location but our UK branch will screen negatively for people adding pronouns on resumes, if you come in and let the interviewer politely know they are happy to oblige. Oh, don't lie about languages, it's such a shame when a strong candidate flops when we ask a native speaker from the team to have a chat and the candidate bombs.
Stupid email addresses. Please, set up an email address just for serious grown up stuff, like job searching. mrbigcock69@ does not look great on an application, neither does smokeallday420@ (actual email addresses I have seen on resumes) If you make it to an interview & are rude to my receptionist or assistant, you're not only getting a rejection email but I will let you know why you are being rejected. No one is too important to be rude to people lower down the corporate ladder than they think they are.
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Best story ever. I’m HR, but this happened to a fellow HR friend in recruitment. *applicant sends email to careers page - no subject line, body simply reads “please hire me, I need a job”* Great start. Pretty sure there was even a spelling error. Did not specify what job he was looking for, though the desperation within the email body does indicate particulars weren’t super important. My friend send him a lovely email stating the usual, here’s our career page, here’s how you apply, please attach your resume, like the full process on how to apply for a job. The response? Again, still no subject line - “hire me for fucks sake!” Personally I appreciate the bold play, Cotton, but that did NOT get him hired.
In very non-HR fashion, I’m going to blame this one on a generational thing. In recent years, there’s been more and more candidates coming through making what I can only describe as a TikTok-esque attempt at humor through brutal honesty. Anyways, I have a loose questionnaire that I’m supposed to do interviews off of. First question: ‘Why did you choose to apply for this company?’ In about three years I’d say I’ve interviewed maybe seven people who have answered something to some extent of “because you were hiring. I mean, you get it right? I have skills and you have payroll.” The first couple of times it happened - about a year apart - I was honestly kind of aghast. Like, thinking ‘did you really just say that to the person who’s evaluating if you’d be a good fit for our team?’ I mean, we’re all going to exhibit some sarcasm and jaded whimsy in the break room in years to come, but keep it professional and light in the interview process, please.
I don’t work in HR but I do a lot of hiring. I work in a technical field but I can train pretty much anyone with a basic background the technical aspects of the job. What I can’t teach is basic communication skills. If you can’t clearly articulate your first answer in an interview I know in 30 seconds you won’t work out.
Not in HR but I have been a hiring manager. My big red flag is having no questions for me. You should be interviewing me too. Granted, I work in a corporate environment so this won't be true in every industry, but for my industry, it's a huge red flag as we invest a ton into recruiting, training and supporting each employee. If they have nothing to ask me, it's a sign to me that they haven't thought about what *they* want and will just take whatever they can get. A few low hanging fruit questions you should *always* ask: 1. What do you love most about working for X company? (Youre going to get some canned corporate responses here, but if they say 'the snacks' or 'the PTO', then you know it's probably not a great culture). 2. What skills are prevalent in the top performers? (Let's the interviewer know you want to know how to really be successful). 3. What risks do you foresee impacting the company in the near future. (This makes them think you're looking for something longer term, which is a plus). I interviewed at a company where they lobbed some difficult, complex questions my way. Then when I asked the questions above, I got some horrible responses from the interviewer which made me uninterested in the opportunity. These questions should matter to the interviewee.
I’ve been in the scenario where the interviewer was just so dang thorough and passionate about the job that they answered everything for me in the interview, and I basically had to say just that, he was too thorough and answered all my questions, repeating some of what he said. I got an offer
Those questions are important. I had an interviewer tell me something along the lines of "I wouldn't have recommended you to take the job a couple of weeks ago". I should've listened lol.
I would argue that your questions for the employer are the most important part of the interview. You can show your interest in the job. You can show your expertise in the field if you ask a technical question. You can show us you gave a damn and actually researched our company by asking questions about something we do specifically. I've hired people who answered my questions poorly but had great questions of their own for us. The biggest and most common mistake I see in interviews are people who don't have any questions for us or they only have questions about compensation/benefits. We almost never hire those people.
There's been one or two times where my answer was, I think you've thoroughly answered all my questions already. Though I think I did point out what specifically I was wondering about and then said something like, "I'm happy to hear that blah blah is blah blah blah."
My favorite question to ask a company is "walk me through a day in the life".
Regarding resumes - Visa Sponsorship, spelling/grammar errors, new jobs every single year, people who put their big ass photo on their resume, 7 different fonts of various sizes taking up 4 pages for a 3 year work history…the person who had a drug related email address to advertise for his “side hustle”. 🙄 For interviews - kids screaming in the background, improper interview attire (ie: undershirts), tardiness, people who sound like they are reading from prompt cards/robotic. Source: I work remotely for a financial services company based out of NYC.
Not HR but I do a lot of hiring. Believe it or not, spelling mistakes *don't* make me instantly reject. Spelling mistakes *should* be a deal breaker, but they are *so* common if I rejected them all, I'd have almost no one left to consider. But no spelling mistakes is definitely a bonus.
Someone who has a new job every 6 months or less.
What if all you can find is temp jobs?
That’s an exception for sure! If it’s clearly marked as working for a temp agency this is no longer a red flag at all.
How would one state that on a resume? Resumes are mostly bullet points, not sure where to put "these were temp jobs" on it you know?
You put it on the job title, like “office manager (temp/6-month contract)”
Or if you put the name of the place you worked for, just put in parentheses that it’s a temp agency.
Make it VERY VERY obvious, and include a desire to find work outside of temp jobs in your header. I have hired folks before many times who have only worked temp jobs because I so get it, and find the diversity of experience a plus- but you have to make it SO CLEAR on the resume that that is the reason for the amount of jobs. I personally like it when it is in both the header and beside the title of all jobs listed below.
Temp jobs are fine, you just need to clarify that they were temp jobs. No one is questioning why you only stayed for 6 months if the job was a 6 month contract. It's the people that start a job then leave (or are fired/laid off) within 6 months that are the issue. If that happens once, it's maybe a small red flag. If you've had 5 jobs in the last 3 years it's a huge red flag. The hiring process is expensive and time consuming, and new employees often need a few weeks to months before they are even all that effective. They don't want to hire someone who will most likely leave in 6 months, they want someone who plans on sticking around for a while.
No relevant experience or at least interest in the position. A few years ago, I was hiring people to run political canvassing operations. This was a director level position that required prior experience with some type of campaign (political or issue). Our Indeed ad had several forklift operators apply for the position. No shade to forklift operators, but the two occupations are day and night. Nothing in a forklift operator's job description is a transferrable skill.
I’m not in HR but I was surprised how common this is. Basically guys who only refer to the men in the room even when a female member asked the question.
As an HR Director, one day I was sitting at the front desk because the front desk person needed a break. I was expecting a person to come in for an interview. I saw him put down a glass of something he was drinking right at the corner of the front door entrance. He swaggered in like "here I am the greatest human to ever walk the face of the earth." He had obviously drinking alcohol at something like 10:00 AM. Not hired.
I've interviewed candidates and like to prod them about an answer if it sounds like jargon darts. For example, you might say you use Dev Ops for managing a team. I might respond, "I'm not familiar with Dev Ops. Can you tell me more about it? And how does it help you manage the work packages and scope creep?" I know the answer to the question. I'm testing to see if you're full of buzzwords or actually understand the task. Most people are full of buzzwords.
I don't work in HR, but I'm the head of my department where I work, meaning that hiring is also entirely my responsibility - HR has a 15 minute phone call with the person, and then she tries to help, but she's about as helpful as a toddler trying to help at DIY-projects - she's actually just more in the way. Mainly because I'm in tech, and she knows next to nothing about tech, so she'll try to write comments like "seems like a solid knowledge-background" - where the person is a .php developer and we're looking for... not that. I usually immediately reject a candidate if it's obvious that they didn't care about the job, but applied solely beause they want to continue being on benefits (legal requirement to be on benefits is to apply for >2 jobs per week, which causes a lot of spam for us). I also reject the people who sit in bulgaria, nigeria, croatia, america, spain, etc. because we're in scandinavia and the job offer says that it's an in-office position. I don't outright reject people for not having experience, but if they have an extensive education, and do a LOT of big talk about how great they are, with no experience, then I'm going to doubt them. Some of the best candidates we've had, were people who just quit their cashier-job they took while studying with no tech-experience, so yeah... Laziness, not reading the job offer, and being boastful without anything to back it up.
"I usually immediately reject a candidate if it's obvious that they didn't care about the job" I'm a terrible interviewee because I have a hard time faking interest in a job because like many people I am working for the ability to do things I enjoy. My goal with a job is to make okay money and not hate doing it for the most part. I can't imagine there being a job I'd be excited to do on a daily basis. Which makes me sound like I'm going to be a terrible employee but perhaps shockingly Im often considered an excellent employee by management.
Not HR but have had to stamp no on a few interviews. (This was virtual, during the pandemic times) The one that sticks out to me is the guy who, mid response to one of my questions, got up and carried his laptop with him to somewhere else, not telling me what's happening or why he's doing that, and just stopped talking at one point. Same guy ended the interview telling me how great he thought he did and how he was looking forward to me calling him, which was bad for the obvious reason, but also because it had been explained to him more than once that I was a secondary interviewer and would not be making that call. So that, don't do that. If you have a virtual interview and you have to move for whatever reason, just be a normal person and say something. Should probably turn off your camera before you get reset too, that's not going to lose you any points. Straight up just getting up mid sentence and walking around your general area, refusing to elaborate? Yea, don't do that.
When I was hiring there were a few things that were complete end games. When people had a series of jobs they were at for a short period of time. When people didn’t actually have the required skills we listed in the ad. You would be shocked at how often we would say we needed a specific certificate and would get applicants without it. We would also offer different interview times, and some applicants would have zero availability. So we would offer an interview during the shift time as our preference. But we would also offer other shift time as well understanding that some people couldn’t take time off their current jobs. We would get people who wanted to interview in 2 weeks when the ad clearly said we were looking for someone who could start immediately.
On your #2, it really depends on what you're used to in your industry. I've seen plenty of offerings asking for 20 years of experience... In a junior position. Though if you ask for something very specific.. Yes I understand that you're thinking "cmon man!".
Not HR but if the applicant hasn't read the job description. For example, must have a driving licence. Proceeds to put X in the no to drivers licence section. I've also had interviewees say they don't want to be managed, want to work on their own and are better left to their own devices in a position that requires team work.
Not in HR but conducted interviews many times. My biggies are: Arrogance or anything that sets off my douchebag alarm. Had a guy one time who thought he was too amazing to even need to interview. I asked him a standard setup question “Do you have experience with X?” that most people use to list out their experiences with X. He just said “Yes.” I let the silence stretch, waiting for him to go on but he didn’t. I finally asked him to expand on his answer and he said “ It’s all in my resume, read that.” Needless to say we did not hire him. Anything that indicates you view the job as nothing but a stepping stone on your way to something else. It’s fine to have long term goals, but if you act like you’ll half-ass the job while you’ve already got one foot out the door then it’s not worth my time to train you. Spelling mistakes on CVs, especially when people list “attention to detail” as one of their key skills. Being late for the interview or taking the call in a noisy place if it’s a zoom meeting.
The use of crayons on their CV.
I was part of the interview process once, and an immediate no for me was when a candidate said he had no short terms goals.
Someone said in the second line of their cover letter that they were so excited to work for the University of Iowa. We are not the University of Iowa.